Parker receives up to 20 years

ROGERS CITY – A Millersburg man will spend at least seven years and 11 months in prison for taking naked pictures of three children and molesting one of the three.

David Wayne Parker, 46, was sentenced in Presque Isle County Circuit Court Monday after pleading guilty to three counts of second-degree criminal sexual conduct and seven counts of child sexually abusive material. In January, he told the court he had taken pictures of two childrens’ genitals and the exposed backside of a third. On three occasions he took pictures of himself touching one of the children.

Judge Scott Pavlich sentenced Parker to a minimum of seven years and eleven months and a maximum of 20 years in prison, with 84 days credited for time served for the seven counts of child sexually abusive material. He also was sentenced to seven years and 11 months minimum to 15 years maximum for the three counts of second-degree criminal sexual conduct, to be served consecutively. He must pay a total of $810 in fines and costs, and will be monitored as a sex offender for the rest of his life.

In exchange for Parker’s guilty plea, the court dismissed four additional counts of child sexual abusive activity and one count of using a computer to commit a crime, Pavlich said in January.

Mike Vogler, Parker’s attorney, took issue with two of the items on Parker’s presentencing report, arguing that Parker had received higher scores than he deserved. In one case, he said an item taking into account the psychological damage to Parker’s victims had an improperly high score because there was no evidence of damage. In the second, which took Parker’s cooperation with police into account, Vogler said that while Parker had denied committing the acts to detectives at first, he eventually confessed.

Pavlich disagreed with Vogler’s first objection, saying the scoring item can take into account the possibility of psychological damage and needs no evidence.

Steiger countered Vogler’s second objection, pointing out that not only did Parker lie to detectives about what he did, but threw away his computer after detectives spoke to him and refused to tell them where it was when they returned with a search warrant.

Pavlich did not change either items on the report.

Prior to his sentencing, Parker apologized for his acts.

“I do apologize for what I did, and I’d like to apologize to the families as well,” he said.

Pavlich told him that all adults have a responsibility to protect children. Parker had a close relationship with the childrens’ families, and he had taken advantage of them.

“They should get to be children, they should get to do things kids do and not even have to be aware of any of this,” he said. “And yet you put them through it and the damage that can result is hard to calculate. I mean, it really is oftentimes damaging for the rest of these kids’ lives. And it’s a shame.”